Intel finally announced the 10th Generation Comet Lake-H processors for mobile devices today. Notebookcheck has the scoop on what you can expect from the new 14nm processors in terms of performance.

These new chips rock the Comet Lake-H microarchitecture, which is on Intel's 14nm process node. AMD Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir), on the other hand, is based off AMD's Zen 2 microarchitecture and the 7nm process node from TSMC. From a technological standpoint, AMD's offerings are more modern.

Being H-series parts, Comet Lake-H and Renoir processors are mobile-friendly with TDP (thermal design power) ratings of 45W. In AMD's case, the chipmaker has a special HS-series branch that's optimized for 35W. Both chipmakers have processors that max out at eight cores and 16 threads. However, the Comet Lake-H portfolio starts at four cores, while the Ryzen 4000 lineup starts at six cores.

Processor

Cores / Threads

Base Clock (GHz)

Boost Clock (GHz)

L3 Cache (MB)

Memory Support

TDP (W)

Intel Core i9-10980HK

8 / 16

2.4

5.3

16

Dual DDR4-2933

45

AMD Ryzen 7 4900H

8 / 16

3.3

4.4

8

Dual DDR4-3200

45

Intel Core i7-10875H

8 / 16

2.3

5.1

16

Dual DDR4-2933

45

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

8 / 16

2.9

4.2

8

Dual DDR4-3200

45

Intel Core i7-10850H

6 / 12

2.7

5.1

12

Dual DDR4-2933

45

Intel Core i7-10750H

6 / 12

2.6

5.0

12

Dual DDR4-2933

45

AMD Ryzen 5 4600H

6 / 12

3.0

4.0

8

Dual DDR4-3200

45

Intel Core i5-10400H

4 / 8

2.6

4.6

8

Dual DDR4-2933

45

Intel Core i5-10300H

4 / 8

2.5

4.5

8

Dual DDR4-2933

45

Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-H Benchmarks

Notebookcheck compared the i9-10880H, i7-10750H and i5-10300H SKUs against the Ryzen 9 4900HS, (which we also tested in our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review ) and Ryzen 7 4800H. The site also pulled in the new chips' Coffee Lake-H counterparts, the i9-9880H, i7-9750H and i5-9300H. The Comet Lake-H laptops used for testing used dual-channel DDR4-2666 RAM.

The publication noted that the i9-10880H and i7-10750H results are from two different laptops. Consequently, the results will vary according to the laptop's design and cooling solution. Notebookcheck averaged the Ryzen 4000-series and Coffee Lake-H results scores across a different number of devices.

Processor

Cinebench R20 (Single Core)

Cinebench R15 (Single Core)

Intel Core i9-10880H

508

214

Intel Core i7-10750H

504

213

Intel Core i9-10880H

500

212

Intel Core i7-10750H

500

210

AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS

495

193

Intel Core i9-9980HK

472

198

Intel Core i5-10300H

470

194

Intel Core i9-9880H

457

190

Intel Core i7-9750H

440

183

Intel Core i5-9300H

415

173

Based on Notebookcheck's results, Intel is still the king of single-core performance, but AMD isn't too far behind. The Cinebench R15 results show the i9-10880H as being up to 10.9% faster than the Ryzen 9 4900HS. On the more recent Cinebench R20 benchmark, the i9-10880H's lead dropped to just 3%.

Generation-over-generation improvements will depend on which Comet Lake-H and Coffee Lake-H models you compare. For comparison, the i9-10880H delivers up to 7.6% and 11.2% more performance in Cinebench R20 than the Core i9-9980HK and Core i9-9880H, respectively, according to the benchmarks shared today.

Processor

Cinebench R20 (Multi Core)

Cinebench R15 (Multi Core)

3DMark Time Spy (CPU Score)

3DMark Fire Strike (Physics)

AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS

4,288

1,863

8,966

21,873

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

4,192

1,837

8,360

21,660

Intel Core i9-9980HK

3,544

1,637

8,519

19,640

Intel Core i9-10880H

3,380

1,797

9,015

21,658

Intel Core i9-10880H

3,366

1,785

8,680

21,113

Intel Core i9-9880H

3,277

1,503

7,206

17,743

Intel Core i7-10750H

2,968

1,418

7,419

18,769

Intel Core i7-10750H

2,943

1,404

5,474

17,703

Intel Core i7-9750H

2,556

1,178

6,366

16,305

Intel Core i5-10300H

2,154

921

5,043

12,998

Intel Core i5-9300H

1,727

784

4,074

11,376

The tides turned in AMD's favor when it came multi-core performance. The Ryzen 7 4800H outperformed the i9-10880H by 24% and 2.2% in Cinebench R20 and Cinebench R15, respectively, in Notebookcheck's testing.

Although the i9-10880H's results look bad compared to the Ryzen 7 4800H, the Comet Lake-H showed improved multi-core performance over the prior i9-9980H. According to Noteboocheck's results, the i9-10880H is up to 3.1% faster than the i9-9980H in Cinebench R20 and up to 19.6% quicker in Cinebench R15.

With Zen 2, AMD has almost caught up to Intel in regard to single-core performance. If Intel doesn't move to a new microarchitecture and process node soon, we suspect that AMD will pass Intel when it graduates to Zen 3, 7nm+ chips. Notebookcheck's numbers showed Comet Lake-H failing to compete with Renoir in the multi-core performance race and barely clinging to the single-core ribbon.

It shows the higher clock speed works to help give them a lead in single core but barely now. However they are not able to maintain multi core performance since the chips draw a lot of power and increased heat output. If they do not have the advantage of clock speed, these Intel chips will not be able to beat the Zen 2 chips.